I also tried making candy for the first time. I attempted this Maple Bourbon Caramels recipe, but something wasn’t working for me (maybe my stove, maybe my new candy thermometer, maybe my brain?) and the first batch turned into a bit of a caramel sauce and the second into a brittle. I guess when life gives you the wrong kind of candy you can make a scrumptious ice cream sundae?

Reason #2 for the slow kitchen was our holiday trips to see family in Southern Ontario and then in Dubai. So lots of other people’s home cooking (thanks moms!) and dining out (more on that to come soon with #VeggieTravels). In Dubai we also had the opportunity to go to the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding for a traditional Emerati breakfast. This food was all delicious! Their website has details on some of the goodies.

And finally, reason #3 was an illness at the end of my trip to Dubai which has meant a lot of boring, bland food for the last couple of weeks.

Whoops – seems that even my careful following of this recipe to make Momofuku’s Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies (apart from subbing mini chocolate chips for normal size) didn’t stop a small kitchen disaster. But never fear while it didn’t turn out like regular cookies as intended a sheet of cookie is still yummmmmy!

I’m looking forward to some good cooking this weekend! Yesterday was our first hint of spring here in Ottawa so most of the day was spent outside and enjoying it, but I stayed in for the night and got my cooking rolling!

I got a KitchenAid Mixer for Christmas and have had such a busy few months that I haven’t had a chance to take full advantage yet. I looking at some of the ways you can use it (beyond the obvious) I was excited to learn you can make your own butter! Wow! I love flavoured butter at fancy restaurants so the chance to make my own is pretty darn cool. I decided to try out a recipe for Maple Salted Butter. Maybe a bit of a reach for a first time butter-maker since the author is Australian and some of the ingredients/conversions may not have worked in my favour. While it didn’t turn out like a hard butter as expected it did make a nice whipped butter which was still very tasty.

I am always trying new veggie burger recipes and this one definitely passed the test: Sun dried tomato and mozzarella quinoa burgers from Jessica in the Kitchen. They were easy to form and stayed together really well, they had good flavour and taste – will certainly be made here again!

Another Dishing Up the Dirt recipe came into rotation as well. I saw this potato dish when making the Broccoli Miso salad I shared last week and couldn’t wait to make. Roasted garlic potatoes with fresh herbs and sun dried tomato cashew cream sauce. It was good, but I liked the components a lot – maybe more than the overall meal. And since it was a lot of food for just two of us and we looked to change it up with leftovers and had the potatoes fried with breakfast and the rest of the cream sauce with pasta. Using up the yummies – I love it!